The infamous speed traps of Rosendale (m0tto on T-shirts available at convenience stores: “Rosendale: That’s the Ticket”) or the Town of Ripon (not the city) appear to have a sister city in a n0w-infamous community in Missouri, according to Governing magazine:

Much has been made of the apparently poor police-community relations in Ferguson, Mo., where a confrontation with the police two weeks ago left 18-year old Michael Brown dead and sparked weeks of community unrest. But there are other less visible yet no less serious indicators of simmering conflict in Ferguson, say experts, including one buried in the city’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR).

Ferguson’s budget relies heavily on public safety and court fines that have skyrocketed in recent years. A review of Ferguson’s financial statements indicates that court fine collections now account for one-fifth of total operating revenue. The St. Louis suburb of about 21,000 residents took in more than $2.5 million in municipal court revenue last fiscal year, representing an 80 percent increase from only two years prior, when fines netted about $1.4 million.

While the media has focused largely on the police department’s testy relationship with the majority black community and the city’s shifting demographics, longstanding frustration with the municipal court system may have also contributed to the civil unrest, say some.

Brendan Roediger, an assistant professor at the Saint Louis University School of Law who supervises a local civil advocacy clinic, said practices of the local court system are a major driver of Ferguson residents’ distrust of government and law enforcement. Roediger described a court system in Ferguson and select areas of St. Louis that function primarily as a revenue generator. “They don’t want to actually incarcerate people because it costs money, so they fine them,” he said. “It appears to be a blatant money grab.”

From his time representing clients in Ferguson, Roediger estimates the court — which holds three sessions each month — heard 200 to 300 cases per hour some days.

The city’s most recent annual budget report attributed the sharp increase in fines to a “more concentrated focus on traffic enforcement” from both manned enforcement and the installation of traffic cameras. Red light cameras posted in three locations resulted in 5,318 tickets in fiscal year 2013, according to city records.

Ferguson’s financial documents depict a city increasingly reliant on fines to fund government operations. In all, fines and forfeitures accounted for 20 percent of the city’s $12.7 million operating revenue in fiscal year 2013, up from about 13 percent in 2011. …

In general, traffic fines tend to account for a larger share of revenue in smaller communities. State law, however, prohibits Missouri municipalities from collecting more than 35 percent of operating revenues from traffic fines and court costs, requiring excess money be turned over to the state Department of Revenue for schools.

If cities decide to ramp up traffic enforcement, they shouldn’t do so primarily to raise revenue, said Christine Cole, executive director of Harvard Kennedy School’s criminal justice policy and management program. “It can put police in a difficult place because you then become reliant on that revenue,” she said.

Rather, any increase in enforcement must be clearly tied to public safety gains. It’s also equally crucial that city officials and law enforcement communicate such safety benefits to residents, Cole said.

It’s difficult to gauge the extent to which the increased enforcement and hefty fines added to Ferguson residents’ discontent in the years leading up to shooting death of Michael Brown. Legal advocates, though, argue that it helped foster negative perceptions of law enforcement and government in general.

ArchCity Defenders, a local legal and social advocacy firm, recently issued a scathing white paper that identified the Ferguson Municipal Court as one of the region’s most “chronic offenders.” …

The report alleged that the Ferguson Municipal Court routinely began hearing cases 30 minutes before the scheduled start time, then locked the doors to the building five minutes after the official start. As a result, those who arrived late faced an additional charge for failing to appear. The Ferguson court also limited access to hearings to only defendants and lawyers. Earlier this summer, the presiding judge of the St. Louis County Circuit Court sent a letter urging municipal judges and cities to open their courts to the public.

The Ferguson Municipal Court disposed of 24,532 warrants and 12,018 cases in 2013, or about 3 warrants and 1.5 cases per household, according to the report.

The animus of Ferguson residents toward their police is not necessarily primarily the fault of the police. (Although it certainly seems from this distance that Ferguson’s police may not be the ideal model of a suburban police department.) Oppressive law enforcement isn’t necessarily something dreamed up by police chiefs. Ferguson’s mayor and council pass ordinances (including speed limits) and give the police chief direction. That also applies to such Wisconsin speed traps as Rosendale and the Town of Ripon.

For another example, let’s head to Waldo, Fla, according to the Gainesville Sun:

The Waldo police problems with Szabo apparently don’t end with the speed traps …

On Aug. 12, Szabo was placed on administrative leave after the Florida Department of Law Enforcement launched an investigation against him on an allegation of violating police procedures. Neither Worley nor FDLE officials have been willing to provide details in the case, citing an active investigation. The five officers who brought allegations Tuesday night against Szabo, Worley and Waldo Police Cpl. Kenneth Smith said they did not know the details of the FDLE investigation.

Roberts alleged in his presentation that Szabo regularly lied on his timesheet and would disable a GPS device on his city-owned vehicle – violating department policy – to cloak his location.

Roberts also claimed Szabo used a cooler in his office to store drug evidence and not a secure room commonly used by other departments. This placed the evidence within reach of civilian employees. …

The cooler of bongs disappeared after Szabo was suspended, Roberts said.

… nor with just Szabo:

Subsequent reporting makes one wonder why Szabo was hired in the first place:

A copy of Szabo’s personnel file provided through a public records request showed he applied to become an officer with Waldo Police in 2000. His application showed he was an Air Force veteran who was hired with the Walterboro, South Carolina, police department in 1996 and was then hired by the Clay County Sheriff’s Office in 1997. He was fired from his Clay County job 10 months into his routine probation because he did not get along with his supervisor, records show. He also worked for the Lake Mary Police Department for six months in 1999 and disclosed that he was untruthful with a supervisor about damage to his patrol car, records show. When asked on the application why he left Lake Mary, Szabo replied, “We talked about it.”

This shows that police officers are not always the right people to blame for police problems. Sometimes it’s their bosses, police chiefs. (Big-city police chiefs, such as Milwaukee’s Ed Flynn, are usually liberals similar to the people who hire them.) And sometimes it’s the chiefs’ bosses, municipal leadership, who, among other duties, set municipal speed limits and tell their police chiefs what to prioritize.

(This blog is brought to you by the Wisconsin State Patrol, whose anniversary was yesterday, and who should not celebrate another anniversary.)